Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1887-12-25
CHAPTER II.
TnMAS4rTTO,S RlRrif.

MOTE iDal ~ years ago uu dmefl'
can ship in the China trade took fire of
the coast Of South America. When dis
covered the flames had gained such
Roadway that all efforts 10 save the
vessel were futile. All through the
last hours OF dark and stormy night
the crew worked with tho energy of
wild despair to quench the FIRE, but in
spite Of all, the flames gained head,
and by the time the sun broke through
murky, and storm rent sky, the
conflagration had reached a
point where the hungry waves
OF the sea offered the
only refuge from the more hungry
waves Of the fire. IL launching the
boats two were swamped before leav-
ing the ships side and all their occu-
pants there went down, never to he
seen again. Three boats got away,
but we're quickly separated by the
storm. OF two OF those no trace was
ever found. The third drove fast away
TO windward with six men aboard
who dared not hope that their craft
would survive from one moment to
another. AS the little shell rose al,
most to the clouds en- the
crest OF mountainous wave,
the ship rose up against
the dark background OF the sky, Il
terribly grand sight; the flames
leaped madly from her hold like
things OF Satanic intelligence, as if in
conscious competition with the
sea to see which conld make the
widest bounds. They ran along the
masts and rigging like fiery tongues
intent on devourng all in their way.
Time and again the bright mass OF
flame rose up against the sky. and
then as the bottom of the hold burned
through where the fire originated
in mass OF combustibie matter,
the sea rushed in victorious at last
over the fire and ship together, and
dragged what there was left Of the poor
victim TO depths unknown.
Ninety days later some natives on
one OF the Hawaiian Islands saw
weather. beaten boat with a white rag
on an oar hoisted as n signal of dis
tress slowly drifting on the breakers
near the shore. In an Instant hall u
dozen stalwart and skillful swimmers
were plunging through the surf to-
ward the strange craft where only
death seemed to sail the seas.
Boarding the boat three men, almost
naked, helpless, haggard, almost
dead, only the wild gleam from the
sunken eyes betokcning life,
we're found stretched in the bottom OF
it. The natives rowed the craft to the
harbor, mile further up the coast.
The three shipwrecked sailors were
cared for so well that two OF them,
Thomas Bailey and William James,
after many days, were nursed back to
life, their companion having sue
cumbed to the waste made on his sys-
tenn by hunger, thirst and expo
sure. The regaining OF strength
was slow and difficult process for the
two survivors but youth, II strong
and the mild climate OF
the islands, seconded by skillful treat
ment, conquered even death.
After their restoration to strength
the two Americans got passage on a
ship to San Francisco. The bleak
winds and heavy fogs of that region
soon began to tell on them, and then
they realized that the inroads made
upon their vital forces could never be
that they must be vale
tudinarians for the remainder OF their
lives. Even at that remote period Los
was celebrated for her climate
and learning OF its mildness and
from persons who had
been there, Bailey and James made
their way to the city Of the Angels.
Here their strength returned at an
pace, and in couple OF
years the two men, made fast friends
by common dangers and common diff
ficulties, found themselves at twenty
five years of age as well in health and
as robust fin frame as they had been
the day they sailed from Boston in
the trim bark Hornet" which met
her fate that gloomy morning 500
miles from the coast Of Peru. They
made many friends among the native
of Los Angeles, and they
into the Spanish families
OF the country. Time passed and the
heads OF these families passed away,
leaving the Gringos, as the Americans
were called by some Of the natives, to
take their places as there were no
male heirs to succeed. Indeed, the
family into which Bailey married had
been noted for three generations for
the paucity Of its males, while it was
most exuberant in its production of
remarkably handsome lot OF girls. Az
these pledges Of affection continued to
arrive to bless the union OF our ship
wrecked mariner and Carmen Ram
irez, it was evident that this mysteri-
GUS law OF her family was not to be in
terrupted even by the presence of the
American blood. Girls births were
OF almost annual recurrence, but
while there were fully half q dozen
handsome, oliye-skinncd girls with